Who Would Win: Merrill Vs Jade Curtiss
by draconichero21
Summary: The sixth installment of my Who Would Win one-shot series. This time I'm having two badass mages duke it out in another duel to the death. Merrill the moe mage versus Jade Curtiss the sorcerer of snarkiness. Who is the more powerful mage? Read and find out.


**(A/N: Mages, controllers of the elements. There are many out there, but these two are amongst some of the most interesting and capable of more than their appearance and personality would indicate. Hope you've enjoyed the series thus far cause this is the sixth installment of Who Would Win?! NOTE: I adore both characters to death. Merrill is most Moe thing Western RPGs have ever produced and Jade is the snarkiest, coolest old guy ever).**

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age or Tales of the Abyss

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**The Fighters**

**Fighter A**

Name: Jade Curtiss

Race: Human

Personality: Snarky

Primary Weapon: Lance/Spear

Primary Magic: None. Uses all elements but Darkness

Limits to Power: His glasses, which decrease his fonic abilities.

Most powerful attack: Mystic Cage

**Fighter B**

Name: Merrill

Race: Elf

Personality: Innocent

Primary Weapon: Staff

Primary Magic: Nature and Blood

Limits to Power: Her health due to blood magic

Most powerful attack: Wounds of the Past to creatures of flesh

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**The Setup**

Wandering the world of Thedas, Merrill is contacted by a demon with an offer she believes is simply too good to pass up. The demon just has one catch to the contract: Merrill needs to kill a specific target on a different location in the space/time continuum altogether, but her contractor is more than willing to escort Merrill there free of charge.

Merrill soon finds herself in a strange much more technologically progressed world, but the demon helpfully keeps her from getting lost and escorts Merrill straight to her target. She is in the midst of the city of Keterburg on the world Auldrant, home to a mage of incredible power. Bursting into the house, unannounced, of Jade and Nephree, Merrill then draws her weapon on the sorcerer of sarcasm.

"Sorry to burst in like this, but I need your blood to fulfill a demon's contract."

"Uh, I think you have the wrong house," Jade said, standing up.

"No, I have the right house, the demon said so," Merrill said.

"Right then," Jade said, grabbing his spear, "Can we take this outside?"

"Oh, okay." Merrill said and politely exited out of the house.

"Right then, how's this for a negotiation?" Jade asked. "Energy blast!"

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**The battle…**

Merrill dodged out of the way of Jade's attack. She fired off five blasts of energy from her staff. Jade projected a shield wall using magic guard to protect himself. Jade begins charging up a magic spell. Merrill prepares her own and is done much sooner.

"Stone fist!" The rocky attack goes rocketing towards Jade, but his resilience allows him to shrug off the damage.

"Turbulence!" Merrill is blasted from beneath by the wind magic, knocking her off balance. Jade prepares another spell while Merrill is staggering. "Flame Burst!" The fire rained down from above. "Sonic Spear!" Jade rushed forward to impale Merrill straight through and got her in the shoulder.

Merrill pulled Jade's spear out of her. "Maker have mercy on you, I certainly won't. Wrath of the Elven!" Merrill realizes her life is threatened and prepares one of the most deadly modes. Now completely in control of the Earth she knocks Jade away by tearing up the ground and sending a jagged spike of rock right into his face.

Jade recovers in midair and prepares to cast, not recognizing Merrill's ability for what it really is. "Stalagmite!"

Merrill dispels Jade's own attack using her control over the Earth. She then launches out a bolt of spiritual energy to strike Jade from afar and then fires off five more blasts of energy.

_So she has some control over the earth I see. Very well. _"I think it's time we turned up the heat a little. Flare Tornado!" The fires begin to waft around Merrill, but she vanishes in an instant.

Merrill uses her special Stone's Throw technique to warp across the battlefield. She then uses her powerful Ensare ability to draw Jade towards her and inflicting heavy nature damage on him. She then casts her chain lightning spell. Stunned for a moment by the lightning Merrill follows up with more blasts from her staff and attacks with another stone fist. Jade is sent flying, but he recovers. Jade, realizing Merrill can strike from faraway and realizing she's more dangerous up close, refrains from using more time consuming casts.

"Eruption!" From beneath Merrill is incinerated by the fiery magic. "If you can't stand the heat then get out of my kitchen." Jade remarks.

Merrill retaliates though. Realizing she is outclassed in a contest of pure power, Merrill tries a little entropy. She activates her Misdirection Hex, slowing Jade down considerably and makes her advance on him. She then activates her Death Cloud putting her enemy to sleep and dealing considerable spiritual damage. She follows up with more blasts from her staff and goes in close and begins tearing Jade apart with her nature magic. Then she casts her death hex and strikes with her staff dealing a critical blow and blasting Jade, presumably killing him.

But Jade suddenly rises triumphantly into the air, completely unharmed as if mystically revived. Jade's skill Angel's Tear has saved his life as it has so many times in many battles. Merrill feels gypped out of an easy victory.

"Something the matter?" Jade asks with a provocative smirk. "Don't answer that. Thunder Lance!" Shocking Merrill to her core with electricity Jade is back in control of the battle. "Shocking isn't it?" As Merrill goes to land hard on the ground, Jade follows up his strike. "Sovereign Gale!" Merrill is pushed away from Jade, distance attacks are what he needs to win this battle. He also has to be wary of Merrill's next onslaught. Angel's Tear only works once.

Jade recognizes when Merrill casts her Misdirection Hex again, noticing the pattern. However he bolts to the side when he sees the movement from Death Cloud, though he just barely escapes the intense fog from the reduction in speed. She prepares to try again, but realizes she's low on mana and without Hawke around there's no Lyruim potions for her to just down. Still, she just has to get close to Jade.

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**The Winnah…**

Merrill refuses to stay down. She draws power deep within her and activates her Blood of the First ability. Drawing on her own life force rather than her conserved mana pool, Merrill begins attacking Jade with intense ferocity and striking with renewed vigor. She summons a lightning storm to rain down from above and continues her onslaught.

_That's right come right to me. _"Prepare yourself!" Jade breaks free of Merrill's hexes and sends her flying as his Overlimit is achieved. "Photon!" Merrill is blasted back with a ball light. "Meteor Storm!" Jade blasts Merrill with the rain of giant fireballs. Once herded he casts another spell. "Prism Sword!" Merrill takes considerable damage from the light elemental spell.

However, the elf mage refuses to stay down and slowly rises to her feet. Merrill knows that she's running low on Mana, but even though her life force is running low she has no other option as her mana level is not regenerating fast enough. She activates her Blood of the First mode. She has a spell that will crush Jade and ultimately bring about his defeat, or so she believes. Merrill casts her Wounds of the Past spell to ultimately rend her opponent from the inside out.

However, while Jade takes considerable damage, he is at peak physical form in overlimit and it simply is not enough and he was preparing to cast his spell long before Merrill prepared her wounds of the past. Though he is completely vulnerable to attack for the moment as Merrill sends out bolts of energy Jade is in the midst of attacking.

"Oh admonishing melody, arise in the name of the Necromancer! Mystic Cage!" Before Merrill knows what is happening she is surrounded in a ball of light that envelops her and does considerable damage. "Now know what true power—"

The blasts from Merrill's staff hit Jade, doing considerable damage as the Overlimit ends and he is exposed to damage. The blasts rip into his body, dealing considerable damage to his shoulders, right arm and stomach. Jade is in quite a bit of pain right now, but the damage he dealt to Merrill is so bad that she is forced to exit out of her blood magic state and forced to let her mana recharge.

"Looks like these," Jade remarks as he reaches for his glasses, "have got to go!"

Jade's power soars as his body reaches a new state of power. Merrill has enough mana left for one spell, but between the damage he has suffered and the removal of his glasses Jade is ready for another overlimit. Merrill relinquishes her wrath of the elven mode to restore a bit more mana and attacks with her Tempest spell. However, Jade holds steadfast against Merrill's attack and strikes. "I, who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee, who opens the gates of hell. Come forth divine lightning! This ends now! Indignation!"

The powerful lightning blasts down upon Merrill eradicating the rest of her life force. She topples to the ground in a heap.

"I hope this teaches you not to break into people's houses and demand they make a full withdrawal from the blood bank."

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**(A/N: Electrifying! Okay time for the post-match analysis: Jade is not only most likely older than Merrill, but Merrill's blood magic sucks away her health. While it's unusuable in gameplay Jade's glasses are the same as Kenpachi's eyepatch in Bleach, it holds him back, or rather keeps him from using the full power of his spells. Merrill's arsenal may be deadly, but she also has no way of restoring her health and Jade can revive from K.O once using Angel's Tear. Jade is also a soldier so he has the training to recognize attack patterns and he is intelligent making him able to quicker adapt to Merrill's fighting style than she would. While Merrill can cast her spells faster than Jade, Jade has a more diverse arsenal and a more powerful one at that. Indignation and Mystic Cage are ridiculously overpowered compared to what Merrill has in her arsenal and just to rub it in Jade joins your group at level 45 when you aren't even 10 yet. Merrill is a regular level character. Merrill's wrath of the Elven may make her a fighting force up close, but Jade doesn't have a weak range in that he has considerable ability with his spear artes. Also while Merrill can dispel magic attacks that wouldn't save her from Jade's spear attacks. On top of that Jade is immune to being staggered and is resilient while casting spells. Beyond that a good portion of Merrill's spells and abilities are used while fighting off hoards of enemies while almost all of Jades spells and abilities are effective in one-on-one combat. The Moe Merrill just couldn't best the sorcerer of snarkiness. The winner is Jade Curtiss).**

**NOTE: On the next who would win battle I am going to pit two dual wielding gunslingers against each other. One of them is flat as a board; just don't say it to her face. The other doesn't give a flying fuck about life at all and spends her days running jobs and dodging cops. Who are these gunslinger girls of dual wielding delight? You just gotta be patient for the next episodic fight to see WHO WOULD WIN?!**


End file.
